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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Fukushima Daiichi No. 4; Helicopter to be used?

One news service right now reports that the Japanese Self Defense Force has offered to use a helicopter to dump water on spent fuel pools, particularly that at No. 4 plant if no other means are available.

The main problem is that the roof is still on the building, unlike that on the No. 1 and No. 3 plants; how the helicopter would get water in is unclear. Furthermore, there could be expected to be radiation streaming vertically over the spent fuel pool making any attempt to work above it (either to open a hole, or to construct some way to get more water in) problematic. Look closely at our earlier post, and the drawing and note the very thick concrete walls all throughout the secondary containment that also serve as biological shields. The pool is expected to be essentially open on the top, as shown. It is possible that some objects are on top of it; perhaps they shifted or were dropped during the quake or tsunami. This is very speculative.

This same report indicates that police and firefighters are working on site and are cooling the fuel pool, so that we're not exactly certain what the situation is at this moment. TEPCO press releases have halted from Daiichi site, although Daini is reporting the situation normal there with all four reactor plants at Daini in cold shutdown.